40% of Germans in favor of recognizing Palestine as independent state : Survey

BERLIN

More Germans are in favor than in opposition of recognizing Palestine as an independent state, a new survey revealed on Friday.

Some 40% of respondents said Germany should recognize Palestine as an independent state, while 27% said they were against such a move. About 33% indicated that they were not sure.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center left-liberal coalition government has repeatedly turned down calls for the recognition of Palestinian state, arguing that current conditions were not suitable to take such a step.

Last month, Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized a Palestinian state and urged other European states to follow their lead. This week Slovenia also recognized Palestinian statehood.

Potential EU sanctions on Israel

The representative survey by YouGov revealed that majority of Germans disapprove of Israel's military offensive in Gaza as it claimed too many civilian lives.

As many as 51% of Germans said they would support EU economic sanctions on Israel due to its military offensive in Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinian civilians were sheltering. Only 26% of Germans opposed such a move against the Israeli government.

The poll was conducted by YouGov between May 31 and June 5 among a nationally representative sample of 2,295 people.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Some 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah which began on May 6.